Article: Blockbuster film 'based on hoax'.

SMASH-hit movie The Da Vinci Code has been condemned by a Sheffield-based leading expert on secret religious societies as '"dangerous lies".

The controversial film is breaking box-office records on both sides of the Atlantic, but Dr Geoffrey Basil-Smith says the Dan Brown book and the film are based on an elaborate practical joke.

Dr Basil-Smith, aged 60, from Crookes, is a Grand Master of 32 of the world's most secret societies and has researched the origins of The Da Vinci code and its predecessor The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail.

"If people read this book or see the film and think, 'That was a really good story', then that's fine," said Dr ...

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